Mike Whaley: Lora May helped mold girls softball in Rochester

A lifelong Rochester resident and early champion of girls softball in the city, Lora May died on May 10 after a period of failing health. She was 74.

Earlier this week, Lora May's memory was honored in the form of a $1,000 scholarship, awarded to West who graduated from Spaulding High School this past June. She is attending Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

West plans to play softball at Clark and wants to become an elementary school teacher.

Softball is at the very heart of this scholarship.

Lora May is credited with helping to form the Rochester Girls Softball League and served as one of its first presidents back in the mid 1970s. That was light years away from the league's current status at Roger Allen Park with five well-maintained fields.

Back then, girls softball in the Lilac City had a nomadic, second-class existence. It had no permanent home base, playing games on fields at the Rochester Fairgrounds, Rochester Common and behind McClelland School. Equipment was scarce, and uniforms, for the most part, were T-shirts only.

“There was not a lot of girls softball support back then,” said Lora May's son, Mark, who lives in Lebanon, Maine. As a teenager, he can remember playing baseball and being called on by his mom to umpire some of the girls softball games when he had a free moment.

It was Lora May who brought order to the league and eased the transition process when the league moved in the mid 1980s to its present home at Roger Allen Park.

“What's going up there (at Roger Allen Park), Lora helped to get it started,” said her friend and fellow coach, Anita Baird.

Well-known and well-liked in Rochester, Lora May drove school bus No. 11 for the Rochester School District for many years, and also served as a truant officer.

Lora May was affectionately known as “Mrs. Rich.”

The mother of two boys, Lora May spent a lot of her free time supporting her sons' athletic pursuits on local baseball and football fields. She was also involved with the high school band where son, Steven, was a drum major.

A 1958 Spaulding graduate, Lora May, as busy as she was with work and her sons' activities, found time to put considerable effort into improving girls softball in the city.

“Lora did a heck of a job,” said Baird, whose son, Allard Baird, works for the Boston Red Sox as the vice president/player personnel. “She got it organized.”

The efficient Lora May held league meetings at the McClelland School (she lived across the street), lining up coaches and devising a draft system, recalled Baird.

There were but a handful of teams with sponsors like Dairy Queen and the Kiwanis Club.

Today, the league has 23 teams and approximately 260 players, all fully uniformed. This past July the RGSL hosted four Babe Ruth Softball New England tournaments. One Rochester team advanced to the Babe Ruth World Series.

“That is amazing,” said Baird of Roger Allen Park during a recent visit. “I was talking with some of the girls I used to play with. If we had something like that we would have been in seventh heaven.”

The scholarship, run through the Rochester Girls Softball League, is the brainchild of Lora May's nephew, Doug Daudelin. He felt that a perpetual scholarship connected with the league Lora May helped shape during its formative years seemed like an ideal way to celebrate her memory.

The criteria for potential applicants is that they have played in the RGSL, and graduated from Spaulding High School.

Sami West was an obvious choice. She was the only senior and centerpiece on the 2014 Spaulding softball team, which went 19-3 and advanced to the Division I championship for the first time in program history, losing to rival Dover. West was named D-I pitcher of the year.

“We were going to wait until next year,” Daudelin said. “But I knew Sami was graduating and I knew Lora would have loved her with the band connection. It was a perfect fit. That's why we did it this year.”

West spent almost 10 years with RGSL and was thrilled when she found out she was receiving the scholarship.

“It was very cool,” she said. “(Doug) called me the other day. I was very excited. It was way cool and interesting that she was a band person, too, just like me. We have that bond.”

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Those wishing to make a donation to the scholarship fund may do so by calling Daudelin at 603-978-2265.

Mike Whaley is the Sports Editor for Foster's Daily Democrat and the Rochester Times. He can be reached at mwhaley@fosters.com or 603-516-2949.